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NIHR is ISO Certified in Quality Management System

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) has had a new achievement added to its continuous achievements at various levels, as the NIHR’s Secretariat-General obtained the ISO certificate in its updated version (ISO 9001:2015) in Quality Management System (QMS) issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), following the audit conducted by “Peru Veritas Holding Company”, United Kingdom branch, on all processes and procedures undertaken by the NIHR’s Secretariat-General to ensure their consistency with established objectives and compliance with all the QMS requirements, to become the ISO-certified first national human rights institution at the regional level.

Mr. Zulfikar Haidar, CEO if Peru Veritas, handed over the quality certificate to Dr. Khalifa bin Ali Al-Fadel, NIHR’s Secretary-General, in the presence of the team responsible for the quality system at the NIHR, where Dr. Al-Fadel stressed that the success of NIHR’s Secretariat-General in complying with all ISO requirements, the first of its kind in the world for the quality of the Secretariat-General’s operations, is an exceptional achievement that reflects the Secretariat’s interest and keenness to operate according to globally recognized methodologies for achieving high efficiency and prestigious service.

Dr. Al-Fadel pointed out that obtaining the ISO certificate was not intended as a certificate in itself, but rather a definite desire for development which is the outcome of commitment and effort of all employees to improve the level of services and functions provided by the Secretariat-General, expressing his thanks and appreciation to the team responsible for the quality system at the NIHR, who carried out this task in a short period with a great professionalism, noting the Secretariat’s efforts to enhance the quality of work and the tasks performed by it through the investment of all available fields, which has a positive impact upon the NIHR, in compliance with Bahrain Vision 2030.

The process of obtaining the ISO certificate has passed through a number of stages, most notably study and evaluation, preparation for the application process, quality system documentation, implementation of documented system, system internal audit, external audit and the ISO certification.

During the first stage (study and evaluation), the action group prepared a report of all the activities of the Secretariat-General.  Then came the stage of preparation for the application process, in which the quality committee was formed and a time plan for implementation was developed and approved by the committee, and then training courses were held for employees.  Then came the stage of quality system documentation, in which quality policy was prepared, documented and declared and quality goals were determined.  Then came the stage of application of the documented system, in which all employees of the Secretariat-General were trained to use the QMS documents then to apply the documented quality system.  Then came the stage of system internal audit by identifying the internal auditors, implementing the audit plan and corrective and preventive measures resulting from the audit process and reviewing the quality system.  Finally came the last stage of external audit and ISO certification by the international certification body and implementation of final external evaluation and taking corrective actions.